Japanese Tea Types one Gyokuro

Gyokuro

Gyokuro Tea: A guide

Gyokuro is the rolled form of shaded Japanese green tea leaf. What makes the Gyokuro tea leaf unique is that for the final month before harvesting, it is covered by shade. This shade prevents most of the L-Theanine, an amino acid, from converting into Catechins, the polyphenols responsible for most of the bitterness in other teas. As a result, Gyokuro tea has a sweet, unique taste that is distinctly sweet when compared to the sun-grown Sencha teas. Shading can take the form of trellises being erected above the plants and a drape with black netting; another method used in less high-quality Gyokuro involves wrapping the individual plants.

Gyokuro is Japan's most treasured tea, it is usually only produced in the Spring using the first flush tea, and its production is a very labor-intensive process.